b PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



the Veterinary College, I wish to bring before you the fact, which most of you 

 are already aware of, that there is a bill passing through the House of Com- 

 mons brought in by Mr Holland. The Directors propose that this meeting 

 should petition against that bill, and also that you should appoint a committee 

 to watch over the progress of the bill, and likewise that you should remit to 

 the Directors to consider the subject of a charter for a Veterinary College. 



Mr Hope, Fenton Barns, said that the Directors met recently to consider 

 Mr Holland's bill, but they were then led to believe that it had been with- 

 drawn for the session. They had just learned to-day, however, that the bill 

 was to go on. It appeared to him that by that bill no one holding the 

 certificate of the Highland Society only, would be entitled to call himself a 

 veterinary surgeon, that being reserved exclusively for members of the Eoyal 

 Veterinary College. He did not think it would be doing justice to those 

 veterinary surgeons who simply held the Highland Society's certificate if the 

 bill were allowed to pass, and he hoped the meeting would agree at once to 

 petition Parliament against the bill. The same committee named by this 

 meeting would also take into consideration the proposal of having a charter 

 for Scotland. He might mention that steps were now being taken to obtain- 

 a charter, and that it would be opposed by the members of the Royal College 

 of London, who wished to retain that right exclusively. For himself he did 

 not see why they should not have a chartered Veterinary College in Edinburgh 

 as they had Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and that the Scottish me- 

 troplis should stand in the same position as London in this matter. The death 

 of Professor Dick, and the handing over of his college to this city, seemed to 

 him to make the present time opportune for asking such a charter, and it 

 would be for the interest of veterinary science that it was obtained at once. 



Mr Wardlaw Ramsay of Whitehill thought there could be no difficulty in 

 agreeing to petition against a bill of this sort, which struck at the very root 

 of the Highland Society's operations in this matter. He cordially seconded 

 the motion to petition against the bill. 



After some discussion on the subject, the meeting resolved to express the 

 sense which the Society entertained of the loss they had suffered by the death 

 of Professor Dick. It was also agreed to remit to the Directors to consider 

 the subject of a charter for a veterinary college for Scotland ; likewise to 

 petition against Mr Holland's bill, the petition to be signed by Lord Belhaven 

 in name of the meeting. It was further resolved immediately to telegraph 

 the resolution of the Society on the subject of Mr Holland's bill to the Duke 

 of Buccleuch, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, and Mr Duncan M'Laren. 



Sir Alexander C. R. Gibson-Maitland, Bart. ; Dr Burt, Mr C. Swinton, yr. 

 of Kimmerghame ; Mr Hope, Fenton Barns ; Mr Goodlet, Bolshan ; Mr Gillon 

 of Wallhouse ; Mr Kinloch, yr. of Gilmerton ; and Mr Sadler, Ferrygate, 

 were appointed to draw up the petition. 



Cultivation by Steam. 



The Marquis of Tweeddale, who was received with applause, reported 

 that on the 7th of February last the Directors appointed a committee to report 

 on the various systems of cultivating by steam, consisting of himself as chair- 

 man ; Professor Maccpxorn Rankine, Consulting Engineer to the Society ; Mr 

 Gibson, Wolmet, Chairman of the Machinery Committee ; Mr Slight, Curator 

 of Machinery ; Sir Thomas Buchan Hepburn, Bart. ; Mr Henry Stephens ; Mr 

 Gray, Southfield ; Mr Milne, Niddrie Mains. On the 19th and 20th March, the 

 committee inspected the machines in operation on the following farms in East 

 Lothian : — Ferrygate (Mr Sadler's), Fowler's single engine ; Castle Mains (Mr 

 Todd's), do. ; Queenston Bank (Mr Begbie's) ; Fenton Barns (Mr Hope's), 

 Howard s ; Drem (Mr Reid's), Coleman's. And on the 4th of May the com- 

 mittee inspected Fowler's double engine at work on Mr Henderson's farm of 

 Markle in the same county. A set of queries to be answered by the inanu- 



